英语词汇学复习资料.docx

1、英语词汇学复习资料第一章1. Word - A word is a minimal free form of a language that has a given sound and meaning and syntactic function. The word is an uninterruptible unit. The word may consist of one or more morphemes. The word occurs typically in the structure of phrases. 2. There is no logical relationship

2、between sound and meaning as the symbolic connection between them is arbitrary and conventional. 3. The difference between sound and form result from 4 major factors. (At least 80%of the English words fit consistent spelling patterns)a). the internal reason is English alphabet does not have a separa

3、te letter to represent each sound in the language.b). Pronunciation has changed more rapidly than spellingc). Influence of the work of scribes/printing freezes the spelling of words in 1500d). Borrowing of foreign language 4. Vocabulary - Vocabulary is most commonly used to refer to the sum total of

4、 all the words of a language. It can also refer to all the words of a given dialect, a given book, a given subject and all the words possessed by an individual person as well as all the words current in a particular period of time in history.The general estimate of the present day English vocabulary

5、 is over 1 million words.5.Classification of Wordsby use frequency, by notion, by origin1). Basic word stock the foundation of the vocabulary.1.all national character (most important) natural phenomenamost common things and phenomena of thehuman body and relationsworld around usnames of plants and a

6、nimalsaction, size, domain, state numerals, pronouns, prep. ,conj.2.stability they donate the commonest thing necessary to life, they are like to remain unchanged. Only relative, some are undergoing some changes. But the change is slow.e.g. arrow, bow, chariot, knight past electricity, machine, car,

7、 plane - now3.productivity they are mostly root words or monosyllabic words,they can form new words with other roots and affixes.e.g.foot football, footage, footpath, footer4.polysemy often possess more than one meaning. Become polysemous. e.g.taketo move or carry from one place to another to remove

8、 5.collocability quite a number of set expressions, idiomatic usages, proverbial saying and otherse.g.heart a change of heart, a heart of goldNon-basic vocabulary - 1.terminology technical termsphoto scanning, hepatitis, indigestion, penicillin, algebra, trigonometry, calculus2.jargon specialized vo

9、cabulary in certain professions.Bottom line, ballpark figures, bargaining chips, hold him back, hold him in, paranoid3.slang - substandard words often used in informal occasionsdough and bread, grass and pot, beaver, smoky, bear, catch, holler, Roger, X-rays, Certain words are labeled slang because

10、of their usage.4. argot words used by sub-cultured groupscan-opener, dip, persuadercant, jargon , argot are associated with, or most available to, specific groups of the population.5.dialectal words only by speakers of the dialectbeauty, chook, cocky, station, auld, build, coo, hame, lough, bog 6.ar

11、chaisms words no longer in common use or restricted in use. In older poems, legal document and religious writing or speech.7.neologism newly created words with new meaning e.g. microelectronics, futurology,AIDS, internet, E-mail old meaning acquired new meaning e.g. mouse, monitor2). Content word (n

12、otional word) denote clear notions.Functional word (empty word, form word) do not have notions of their own, express the relation between notions, words and sentences.a. Content words constitute the main body of the English vocabulary are numerous. Functional words are in a small number. b.Content w

13、ords are growing. Functional words remain stable. c.Functional words do far more work of expression than content words. 3). Native words are words brought to Britain in the 15 century by the German tribes.Ango-Saxon Words, 50,000-60,000What is true of the basic word stock is also true of native worl

14、d. More are1.neutral in style(not stylistical specific )2.2.frequent in use (in academic fields and science French, Latin or Greek are used) (usage 70-90%)Borrowed words (loan words, borrowing) words taken over from foreign language. 80%According to the degree of assimilation and manner of borrowing

15、, we can bring the loan words under 4 classes.1.Denizens words borrowed early and now are well assimilated into English language.e.g. port fromportus(L)shift, change, shirt, porkcupfromcuppa(L)2.Aliens retained their original pronunciation and spelling e.g.dcor(F)blitzkreeg(G)emir, intermez, rowtow,

16、 bazaar, rajar, status quo 3.translation loans formed from the existing material in the English language but modeled on the patterns taken from another language.1). Word translated according to the meaninge.g. mother toughfrom lingua maternal(L)black humorfromhumor noir long time no see, surplus val

17、ue, master piece2). Words translated according to the sounde.g. kulakfromkyrak(Russ) lamafromlama(Tib) ketchup tea4. Semantic loans their meaning are borrowed from another languagee.g. stupidolddump newsassy dreamoldjoy and peace pioneeroldexplorer/person doing pioneering work newa member of the you

18、ng pioneer fresholdimpertinent, sassy, cheeky第二章Indo-European language family (Europe, the Near East, India)Balto SlavicIndo-IranianItalicGermanic PrussianPersianPortugueseNorwegianLithuanianHindiSpanishIcelandie PolishItalianDanishBulgarianRoumanianSwedish SlovenianFrenchEnglishRussianGerman Albani

19、anArmenianCelticHellenicIrish Greek Breton Scottish2. History (时间，历史事件，特征)1) Old English (450-1150) totally 50,000-60,000 wordsThe 1st people known to inhabit England were Celts, the language was Celtic. The second language was the Latin of the Roman Legions.The Germanic tribes called angles, Saxons

20、 and Jutes and their language, Anglo-Saxon dominated and blotted out the Celtic. Now people refer to Anglo-Saxon as old English. At the end of 6th century, the introduction of Christianity has a great impact on the English vocabulary.The common practice was to create new words by combining two nativ

21、e words. In the 9th century, many Scandinavian words came into English. At least 900 words of Scandinavian are in modern English, our daily life and speech.特点: highly inflected languagecomplex endings or vowel changes (full ending)2) Middle English (1150-1500)English, Latin, FrenchUntil 1066, althou

22、gh there were borrowings from Latin, the influence on English was mainly Germanic. But the Norman Conquest started a continual flow of French words into English.By the end of the 13th century, English gradually come back into public areas.Between 1250 and 150 about 9000 words of French origin come i

23、nto English. 75% of them are till in use today. As many as 2500 words of Dutch origin come into English. 特点:fewer inflectionsleveled ending3) Modern English (1500-up to now)early modern English (1500-1700)late modern English(1700-up to now)The Renaissance, Latin and Greek were recognized as the lang

24、uages of the Western worlds great literary heritage. The Industrial Revolution was in the mid-17 century. With the growth of colonization, British tentacles began a stretching out of to every corner of the globe, thus enabling English to absorb words from all major languages of the world.After World

25、 War II, many new words have been created to express new ideas, inventions and scientific achievements.More words are created by means of word-formation. thousands and thousands of new words have been entered to express new ideas inventions, and scientific achievements.more words are created by mean

26、s of word-formation.in modern English, word endings were mostly lost with just a few exceptions English has evolved from a synthetic language to the present analytic language.science and technology terms make up about 45% of new words. words associated with life-style constitute of 24% and social an

27、d economic terms amount to over 10% .mention should be made of an opposite process of development i.e. old words falling out if use. 特点:ending are almost lost. 3. Three main sources new words1.The rapid development of modern science and technology2.Social, economic and political changes3.The influen

28、ce of other cultures and languages4. Three modes of vocabulary development1.Creation the formation of new words by using the existing materials, namely roots, affixes and other elements. (This is the most important way of vocabulary expansion.) 2.Semantic change - an old form which take on a new mea

29、ning to meet the new need. 3.Borrowing to take in words from other languages.(particularly in earlier time)4.(Reviving archaic or obsolete)French 30%, Latin 8%, Japanese Italian 7%, Spanish 6%, German Greek 5%, Russian Yiddish 4% 第三章1. Morpheme - A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit of a langu

30、age. (The smallest functional unit in the composition of words.)2.Morph- A morpheme must be realized by discrete units. These actual spoken minimal carriers of meaning are morphs.3.Monomorphenic words morphemes are realized by single morphs. 4.Allomorph-Some morphemes are realized by more than one m

31、orph according to their position. Such alternative morphs are allomorphemes. E.g. the morpheme of plurality (-s) has a number if allomorphemes in different sound context, e.g. in cats/s/, in bags/z/, in matches/iz/. 5. Free morphemes or Free root - The morphemes have complete meaning and van be used as free grammatical units in sentences, e.g. cat, walk. They are identical with root words. morphemes which are independent of other morphemes a